Clearing Up Water

[damigs]

I have a question and need advise. I have recently added carbon to my filtration and it has done a wonderful job until now. Its been about a week since I added it and the water seems yellowish in tint. I do have a significant amout of diatoms/brown algea still on my rocks and notice that my white filter gets brown extremely fast now a days. What I do is replace the filter everyday and scrub the walls etc.

Has anyone used any type of water clarifier like Coralifes Marine Tank clarifier, etc? If so did it help or work?? Also is it okay to use with Carbon in the system or should I remove carbon?

 

[fishyguy43]

I have never used Coralifes Marine Tank clarifier or any types of water "clarifiers" in my salt or in my fresh water tanks. You should find out whats making ur water cloudy, probly all the Brown Algea in the water. Its always better to FIX the problem than just cover it up. There could be a couple of things tht are causing the algea boom, is your tank new all new tanks get algea blooms, are u using RO water, or did u change ur lights or how long u keep thm on latly?

 

[Mr Miagi]

WHat do you mean by "replace the filter everyday"?

 

[superman]

Carbon doesn't keep it's clarifying power very long, it gets saturated quite easily. It would be best to change out the carbon on a weekly basis if you are going to use carbon as your clarifier. Personally I love using ozone continually on any tank of my own. It is an awesome permanent fix when dealing with making water crystal clear. Though expensive up front, you'll never have to buy carbon again and will end up saving you money in the long run, plus you have the added benefit of improved skimmate production when using ozone as well. What size tank do you have? Please clarify your maintenance and feeding schedule, there may be ways we can improve the clarity of your tank just by slightly changing your maintenance/feeding habits.

 

[damigs]

Carbon doesn't keep it's clarifying power very long, it gets saturated quite easily. It would be best to change out the carbon on a weekly basis if you are going to use carbon as your clarifier. Personally I love using ozone continually on any tank of my own. It is an awesome permanent fix when dealing with making water crystal clear. Though expensive up front, you'll never have to buy carbon again and will end up saving you money in the long run, plus you have the added benefit of improved skimmate production when using ozone as well. What size tank do you have? Please clarify your maintenance and feeding schedule, there may be ways we can improve the clarity of your tank just by slightly changing your maintenance/feeding habits.

My 54 corner tank has never truley been crystal clear. Its been setup since Mid November and up until the past month I have been battling diatom/brown algea. The only truely time I saw a big improvement was when I added carbon. The LFS says to leave the carbon in for a month and change it then.

SHould I change the carbon weekly until the tank is crystal clear then go everymonth or so? My feeding habits may be the case also but im using only pellets now and only giving a small percentage daily. Should I cut this back to every other day?

WHat do you mean by "replace the filter everyday"?

Basically the filter in the refugium needs to be replaced daily as it gets brown daily.

 

[superman]

Carbon changed monthly is not frequent enough in most cases. weekly changing out of carbon would be more effective, even if the amount you use is not large. What type of filter is in your refugium that you have to change out daily? What type of skimmer are you using?

 

[damigs]

Carbon changed monthly is not frequent enough in most cases. weekly changing out of carbon would be more effective, even if the amount you use is not large. What type of filter is in your refugium that you have to change out daily? What type of skimmer are you using?

I do not have a skimmer due to lack of space. I have a corner 54g tank and its hard for me to put in HOB or even an in sump style one.

The filter Im referring to is the one that goes from the refugium to the sump. Its a small strip of filter that I have been replacing daily due to color/items its collecting.

I added fresh carbon yesterday evening. I read and was told to replace this weekly until you see you need to replace it less frequent than that. Lets see if it hold true. I sure hope so.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Usually if its brown algae causing the filter to change color rapidly, it can just be rinsed off, but even doing that will kill the biological filtration that it trying to establish in the filter. I also had a period like this and concluded that it was just the brown algae. So I just did more frequent water changes and it cleared up in a week.

 

[superman]

In saltwater tanks that have live rock, a sandbed, a refugium and the like, you don't need to worry about the small amount of beneficial bacteria that may be lost in a small filter like the one that Damigs is talking about.

 

[Matty]

why dont you just use a diatom filter?

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

I dont know how small his filter is, but I do know that mine holds a fair amount of the bacteria to just be killing off every day.

 

[superman]

Do what you please, unless the filter is huge, and he has very little live rock or sandbed the amount of bacteria killed off by simply rinsing the filter or completely replacing the filter will be of no consequence.

 

[Fish Fingers]

It's better to have less bacteria than a filter pad full of nitrates. It you do use mechanical filtration, you should rinse it regularly

 

[superman]

Well said Fish Fingers

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Well I have never seen nitrates on a test and have always rinsed things out weekly and have never had any problems. And for a tank that is not yet established, it was just something to think about with the bacteria. I am not aware of his amount of LR or sand, just simply mentioning it.